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# How to Measure ChatGPT-User

ChatGPT-User fetches a page when someone asks ChatGPT to read it. Measure those hits as live intent in server logs, not as GPTBot or as Ads Manager.

Source: https://usehardal.com/blog/how-to-measure-chatgpt-user-traffic
Published: 2026-08-20
Updated: 2026-08-20
Author: Ecem Bircan
Category: Marketing

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**ChatGPT-User** is what OpenAI sends when a person (or a Custom GPT) causes ChatGPT to open a web page. OpenAI says it is not used for automatic crawling, is not the switch for ChatGPT search, and that robots.txt may not apply because the fetch is user-initiated. Source: [Overview of OpenAI Crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots).

That makes it the most useful "bot" on the list for a marketer who cares about demand, and the worst one to confuse with ads.

A ChatGPT Ads click can land with `oppref` and convert through the [Measurement Pixel](https://usehardal.com/blog/openai-measurement-pixel) or Hardal's [OpenAI Ads destination](https://usehardal.com/blog/hardal-chatgpt). A ChatGPT-User hit means the model retrieved your HTML to answer a question. The human may never hit your JS tag. You still want the log.

## How it shows up

UA includes `ChatGPT-User` (example `ChatGPT-User/1.0; +https://openai.com/bot`). IPs: [openai.com/chatgpt-user.json](https://openai.com/chatgpt-user.json). Volume is bursty. Fastly clocked ChatGPT's fetcher bots at 98% of all real-time AI retrieval requests, which our [marketer crawler post](https://usehardal.com/blog/ai-crawler-traffic-for-marketers) covers in full. Do not average them into GPTBot.

GA4's AI Assistant channel (May 2026) counts human clicks from assistants, not these origin fetches.

## What to report

- Same-day alerts on ChatGPT-User to `/pricing`, `/demo`, `/contact`, comparison URLs
- Path list: which answers ChatGPT is currently grounding
- Split vs [OAI-SearchBot](https://usehardal.com/blog/how-to-measure-oai-searchbot-traffic) (index) vs [GPTBot](https://usehardal.com/blog/how-to-measure-gptbot-traffic) (training) vs paid [ChatGPT Ads](https://usehardal.com/blog/how-to-measure-chatgpt-ads)

If fetchers are high and searcher coverage is zero, people are pasting URLs or the model is retrieving without you being in the search index. Fix the index with OAI-SearchBot, not with more ads spend.

## robots.txt

You can still write a `User-agent: ChatGPT-User` block. OpenAI's own wording is that it may not bind. Search opt-out is OAI-SearchBot. Training opt-out is GPTBot. Do not use ChatGPT-User as a substitute for either.

## How Hardal measures it

Hardal names it as a fetcher under OpenAI on the [AI Visibility](https://usehardal.com/ai-visibility) pipeline. [isvisible.ai](https://isvisible.ai) includes ChatGPT-User in its live UA check. For what to do when the spike lands, [AI crawler traffic for marketers](https://usehardal.com/blog/ai-crawler-traffic-for-marketers).